Bastl Instruments gives its popular budget-friendly lo-fi granular sampler a final black facelift in the Microgranny Monolith version.
I took my first steps in granular synthesis in hardware with the small, portable Microgranny sampler from Bastl Instruments. These steps weren’t the cleanest, however. The Microgranny is a dirty-sounding 8-bit sampler that likes granular synthesis the dirty way.
But it is precisely this characterful sound that has made this hardware unit known in the synth community. Now the Microgranny returns in a final version called Microgranny Monolith with a revised user interface.
Bastl Instruments Microgranny Monolith
The Microgranny Monolith features the same dirty 2.0 engine packed with character. It allows you to load up to 6 sounds into a preset and manipulate them with various parameters at the same time. Including sample rate, crush, start and end position with repeat, instant loop, grain size, grain shift speed, and more. There is also a lovely hold function great for creating drones/textures.
All of these settings can be saved within the sound and up to 6 sounds can be stored in a preset. You can save up to 60 presets in 10 banks which are stored as .txt. files on a microSD card. The corresponding wav files can be playback from the microSD card as well in mono with 22050 Hz in 8 or 16 bits.
On the back, you find a MIDI input that responds to note, cc, and clock data. The latter allows you to synchronize loops and grains. You can also restart a sidechain envelope with MIDI. There is also a power switch for switching from plug or battery operation. Like Microgranny 2.0, it is also based on an Arduino which is fully hackable. So you can modify the engine if you want
The Monolith Facelift
The engine of the Microgranny Monolith is the same as the MG 2.0. But the interface has changed. This is now more modern and now has new black clothes made from sleek black PCB material. It also includes new black knobs that match the new design. But that’s not all.
Bastl Instruments celebrates this revival with a new custom sample pack full of new weird and wonderful sounds by Bogdan Raczynski which are pre-installed in the Microgranny Monolith.
I’m happy to see that Bastl Instruments is re-launching the Microgranny. It’s a very distinctive instrument that’s a lot of fun to play. I’m curious if Bastl will take the Microgranny into new areas in the next version. It would be desirable..
Bastl Instruments Microgranny Monolith is available now for 267,60€/$246 USD.
More information here: Bastl Instruments
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